Q : I have gone like gang-busters on all my lines but one, my dad's mother's mother. The name is common and I found two candidates. How do I decide which one to go with? I'll explain.
I found her parents marriage (my great-grandparents) which had the ages of the bride and groom in a Roman Catholic church record in Slovakia. The bride, Maria, is listed as age 20 in 1888. That would make about 1868 the date of Maria's birth.
Maria #1 is recorded born and baptized in the same church record as her descendants. (Her husband was born elsewhere but in the same general area - just a different church.) However, the only Maria candidate in that church record was not born in 1868 but in 1869. As her groom is listed as age 24, and his birth/baptism is correct as proven by his birth/baptismal, it doesn't seem to me that she might be a bride who wished to appear younger than her groom or anything like that. The wedding was in mid November and her birthday was in September.
Maria #2 is not in the same church record as her descendants. But again is the same general area, just a different church. Again I found that this Maria is not born in 1868. In this case she is born and baptized in 1867... I went back and found her parent's marriage and that was when I realized that her mother was very pregnant with her when they married. She was born about a month later. Therefore I can imagine that by claiming to be older than she was, she might have been hiding the fact that her parents "had to get married."
I used FamilySearch database for my research and other candidates are not coming up.
Help!
Lisa
A: I see the dilemma Lisa. It is compelling to think that Maria #2 gave a wrong age at marriage because she wanted to hide her parent's need to get married when pregnant with her. However, it is also compelling to find the birth/baptism of the bride in the same church record, though it's possible the groom met his bride elsewhere. In either case we are speculating when creating a story about what happened. I do it all the time as I'm interested in the story - the culture - the society - which includes religion and expectations upon women. And sometimes that speculation - a hunch - a synchronicity - leads us to the documents we want.
As a side I once read that an infertile wife was so unwanted that a first pregnancy without marriage was actually desirable by some.
I looked at the records you referred me to and I think that the first Maria is your best candidate. However, in writing my book I would provide the genealogy for both Maria's with an explanation for why you did that. Remember that we write our books in a way that our reader can follow us and so can another person who may go further with that information if and when more documents are available. State it as a fact that you have two candidates and why.
This is also a case where maybe the answer is in DNA as it's always possible that the man who married the pregnant bride was not the father of her child. I always say that we would still want to do the genealogy anyway because if there is a "match" with DNA an the relationship is given, you still want to figure out who is who. (As these are a set of your great-grandparents, it's not as easy as finding out who a birth parent is where a parent, sibling, or half sibling could be revealed.)
Because there are some church books that have not been indexed by FamilySearch, and some handwriting is sloppy enough for a transcriber to make errors however, and the deaths and marriages are not Indexed for Slovakia which was Hungary in 1888, I would, to have peace of mind, also look for a possible Mary in the church where the groom's birth/baptism was located and around at other parishes in the area. Last but not least, do also consider the names of villages and house numbers as well as the godparents when making the decision.
Love your research!
Christine
Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot 2025
